On Nov. 16 Albertans can have their say regarding whether the province should adopt an Alberta Pension Plan.
Participants can preregister via the Alberta Pension Plan website to receive a phone call for one of five “telephone town hall” events happening across the province between Oct. 16 and Nov. 22.
Albertans may also receive an automated phone call on Nov. 15 inviting them to participate in the Nov. 16 town hall, which will take place between 6:30 - 8 p.m.
“During each town hall, the pension engagement panel will dial up people in specific regions of the province to ask them to participate in an evening discussion,” Minister Nate Horner said during a virtual roundtable with rural media that took place Oct. 17.
The town halls will give Albertans the chance to share their views on the LifeWorks report released last month that details how Albertans could receive more and pay less for an Alberta-run plan and on the “costs, benefits, risks and considerations” of the plan, according to the Alberta Pension Plan website.
Viewers can livestream the town halls via the Alberta Pension Plan website.
The pension engagement panel dialed participants from northern Alberta on Oct. 16.
“I think we definitely heard from people who were very much in favour of it… we also heard people very much against it,” Horner said. “A lot of people [said], ‘We want to know more; we want more understanding.’”
Horner said that by May the province should have the information it needs to decide whether it will ask Albertans to participate in a referendum on the plan.
A referendum won’t happen until a year has passed since the referendum’s announcement. If a referendum is approved it could appear as an item on the ballot in a future provincial election, Horner said.
Horner said that he is waiting to hear back from Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland for a one-on-one conversation about whether Alberta is entitled to over half of the Canada Pension Plan’s assets.
